1. Technical Field
The described embodiments relate generally to electronic circuit design and more particularly to an apparatus for creating resistive pathways in electronic circuit assemblies.
2. Related Art
Electronic circuit designs are often implemented on a substrate to ease assembly and mount electronic components used in the design. Substrates can range from simple substrates such as a fiberglass or FR-4 dedicated to mounting and supporting electronic components, to more complex substrates that can not only support electronic components, but can also provide functionality by acting as a keyboard or a display. Substrates often support a mixture of components, traces and connectors.
Electronic designs are driven to become smaller especially because of the revolution in mobile electronic devices such as laptops, personal digital assistants, media players, mobile phones and the like. Efforts to shrink a design can be limited, however, because of the physical size of electronic components. Resistor networks are a common-place element in electronic designs. Implementing resistor networks can be costly in terms of parts and product area especially when implementing resistor networks with discrete resistors. Furthermore, each discrete resistor can add a point of mechanical failure to the design, particularly where the resistor is attached (typically soldered) to the substrate.
Therefore, what is desired is a reliable way to simplify electronic circuit designs by reducing the impact of resistor networks.